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Monday, September 10, 2018

Turkic Muslims: China and the Muslim world’s Achilles Heel

A list of 26 predominantly Muslim countries considered
sensitive by China reflects Chinese concerns that they could reinforce
religious sentiment among the People’s Republic’s Turkic Muslim population with
potentially far-reaching consequences if the Islamic world were to take it to
task for its crackdown in Xinjiang, the most frontal assault on Islam in recent
history.

The list compiled by Human Rights Watch as part of a just
published report on the crackdown in China’s strategic north-western
province details the roll-out of the world’s most intrusive, 21st
century surveillance state as well as an attempt to re-educate a population of
10 million that includes primarily Uyghurs, an ethnically Turkic Muslim group,
as well as Muslims of Central Asian origin.

The re-education
is designed to reshape the population’s religious beliefs so that they adopt an
interpretation of Islam that is in line with the Chinese Communist Party’s
precepts rather than prescriptions of Islamic holy texts in a bid to counter
Turkic Muslim nationalist, ethnic or religious aspirations as well as political
violence.

China’s crackdown, according to a
plan developed by the Baluntai Town government in north-central Xinjiang,
involves targeting among others Turkic Muslims who remain in contact with
family and friends abroad, people who have stayed abroad “too long” and those
who have, independently and without state permission, organized Hajj pilgrimages
to Saudi Arabia. China is particularly concerned about Uyghur contact with
Muslim countries.

“It was 2 a.m. and my daughters (in a foreign country) were
chatting with their father (in Xinjiang) on the phone. You know, they’re
daddy’s girls and they were telling him all their secrets … when suddenly my
daughters ran in to tell me, ‘The authorities are taking away daddy!’” Human
Rights Watch quoted Inzhu, a 50-year-old mother, who lives in an unidentified
country, as saying.

The Muslim
world’s silence constitutes for China a double-edged sword. China’s
campaign in Xinjiang is effectively enabled by the silence, driven primarily by
a desire of governments, many of which are deeply indebted to China, to
preserve economic relations, and allows it to largely ignore criticism
by Western nations, human rights groups as well as the Uyghur
Diaspora.

On the flip side, silence potentially gives Muslim countries
a degree of leverage. Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad seemingly
exploited that leverage with China
treading carefully in the face of an anti-Chinese election campaign
that returned the 93-year old to office in May and Mr. Maharthir’s subsequent
suspension of US$22 billion of Chinese-backed, Belt an d Road-related
infrastructure projects.

The risk for China is that mushrooming publicity about its
crackdown in Xinjiang that includes pressure on Uyghurs abroad to return to the
Chinese province and risk incarceration and has led to countries like Egypt,
Afghanistan the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia,
extraditing Uyghurs to China, will make it increasingly difficult for Muslim
countries to remain silent.

The risk is also that the crackdown could have a boomerang
effect, fuelling radicalization at home as well as abroad. A study,
by Qiu Yuanyuan, a scholar at the Xinjiang Party School, where officials are
trained, that was quoted
in The New York Times, warned that “recklessly setting quantitative
goals for transformation through education has been erroneously used.. The
targeting is imprecise, and the scope has been expanding.”

The risks are enhanced by black swans such as a recent
court case in Kazakhstan that has forced the government in Astana to
walk a fine line between avoiding friction with China and shielding itself from
accusations that it is not standing up for the rights and safety of Kazakh
nationals.

Kazakhs were taken aback when 41-year-old Sayragul Sauytbay,
a Chinese national of Kazakh descent, testified
in an open Kazakh court that she had been employed in a Chinese
re-education camp for Kazakhs only that had 2,500 inmates. She said she was
aware of two more camps reserved for Kazakhs.

Ms. Sauytbay was standing trial for entering Kazakhstan
illegally. She said she had escaped to Kazakhstan after being told by Chinese
authorities that she would never be allowed to join her family because of her
knowledge of the camps. Ms. Sauytbay was given a six-month suspended sentence
and allowed to stay in the country where her recently naturalized husband and
children reside.

The inclusion of ethnic Kazakhs, a community in China of
1.25 million people, in the crackdown sparked angry denunciations in Kazakhstan’s
parliament. “There should be talks taking place with the Chinese delegates. Every
delegation that goes there should be bringing this topic up… The key
issue is that of the human rights of ethnic Kazakhs in any country of the world
being respected,” said Kunaysh Sultanov, a member of parliament and former
deputy prime minister and ambassador to China.

Beyond economic leverage, China has so far benefited from
the fact that Muslim politicians and leaders see more political mileage in
pushing causes like the Palestinians rather than ones that have not been in the
Islamic world’s public eye.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile